irritating sales women

nothing irritates your shopping (besides finding out that you can't afford to buy whatever you're looking at) than that sales woman who follows you around trying to persuade you to buy it. like stalks you.

'oh it looks great on you' (of COURSE she will say that, which sales person wouldn't?)
'that's totally your color' (duh, every color seems to be my color)
'did you know it's on sale? (why else would i be looking at it?!)
'so are you getting it are you getting it are you getting it?' (ARGH!!)

for some reason the most annoying ones are the chinese ones?!

not-so-instant gratification

it took 2.5 years, during which I talked endlessly to anyone who would listen or give car advice. also during which I somehow went from a 2k budget (get an old piece of junk) to 5k (get a not so old piece of junk) to 10k (get what nano calls the "eeeeeyah" model of civic coupe) to 15k (get an almost new but plenty boring civic - the sedan, kenhoe, the sedan) to 18k (get a new scion tc! subwoofer, man)...... to this. :)

so momentous was this occasion that even google decided to commemorate it. (go to www.google.com to see for yourself!)




it which promptly got bugs all over the front and the low tire pressure light coming on - henceforth my introduction to the whole new world of car how-tos. how to buy a tire pressure gauge, how to use it, how to pump air in, how to let air out (when you mis-pumped too much - aiyah too excited mah), how to get bugs off your car...

yeah so about those bugs - I bought "bug removal" spray and micro-whatever sponge, and spent 1.5 hours cleaning bugs et al off my car to a very gratifying result: tada! the "before" and the "after"(see how shiny????)...











Ps: that said - think next time I'll just out-source this cleaning bit.

luvable, luvable assholes

there's some undescribable bond between my cempaka-mates that i claim is special and unique to just the '97 batch, that each of us can truly attest to.

many of us are home briefly, to share joyous moments with the happy couple (hhann: so what do you think of eugene? me: eugene? who? who's eugene? *blur look*), but all of us were also definitely back to catch up and enjoy the camaraderie of the old-timers. it does not seem like we've lost any time with each other.

the reminiscing of good 'ol times ('remember when en. muru used to punish us by making us open doors or stand on one foot in front of the library?), the dirty jokes (sensored lah, but there were many), babies (welcome andrea!), weddings (yen just happened, savi, mark, ju ('melaka, city, melaka, city', HAHA damn funny wei!!!), litping and many more to come). as mindy said, if anyone else were to listen in to our conversation, they'd think we were totally retarded (eh i felt sorry for the uncles aunties within the viscinity).

sure it was a long flight back home, and for a very short time. but it is totally, ABSOLUTELY, worth it.

Spot on.

For anyone who works in an office, walks into an office, uses a computer, shares breathing space with a computer...

http://www.jibjab.com/view/247242

Note what font I'm using... :)

on my way home!

it's going to be a long long journey....

peon

one of the biggest disappointments in my life is when i found out, in spite of its undeniable relation, that the word "peon" did NOT originate from "someone who gets peed-on".

although - if one were to evolutionize dictionary definitions, its meaning should be just that...

instead of (courtesy of dictionary.com):
peon [pee/ˈpiən, ˈpiɒn/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pro-uhn, pee-on] –noun
1. (in Spanish America) a farm worker or unskilled laborer; day laborer.
2. (formerly, esp. in Mexico) a person held in servitude to work off debts or other obligations.
3. any person of low social status, esp. one who does work regarded as menial or unskilled; drudge.

it should be:
peon [pee-uhn, pee-on] –noun
a person that might as well be literally peed-on by others.


:) !!!

pei dan chok!

i tried (not very hard, but with very high hopes) to make pei dan chok (century egg porridge) yesterday. i didn't look up the recipe before, but i remember my mom said 'it's very easy, just dump everything in!'.

and so i did. i bought century eggs and minced pork. dumped that into lots of boiling water, and added rice. and oh i also put in half a jalepeno sausage that my sister brought from austin previously. then i looked up the recipe, because it looked strange :(. got depressed looking at the recipe (who looks at it after cooking, shouldn't it be before? i know, i know) because i don't think i did it right.

anyway, what the heck, this was an experimental thing. boiled boiled boiled, went shopping at stanford shopping mall, came back, and it almost all the water had boiled off.

it turned out pretty yummy! didn't look at all like the pei dan chok from back home, but if you put soy sauce, stir it a little, it tasted pretty decent.